Travel Insurance for Specific Conditions

maryotuam

Hi
I was given a terminal cancer diagnosis over 3 years ago and found I am impossible to insure at ANY price!

I've managed to have several holidays and although it involved some risk it has been worth it.

I have chosen to visit only E111 countries where any emergency health treatment will be covered.
The next problem would be transport home.
I have a friend with a comfortable van that would come and collect me if my condition prevented me from flying.
The worst case scenario has not happened and I've had some wonderful holidays. Travelling without insurance is a risk but, BUT IF FORCED UPON YOU, working out your own solutions to potential problems lessens that risk.

maryotuam

Just a thought....

If people are not insured for pre existing conditions why do they have to pay such a high premium for everything else?
Under these conditions should people make their own arrangements anyway for the uninsured condition?

k-hkr

Hi all,

I`m after advice regarding travel insurance and medical conditions.

Situation is I have two trips booked for Aug/Oct. I have recently been to docs with something which may/may not turn out to be serious. At what point do you have to notify insurers that you have a condition? I dont even know if I have anything serious or what it is yet as he is sending me to see someone else for further examination. Thing is if it is something serious then can see us having to cancel so can get treatment. I already have annual policy from last year which doesnt run out till June/July time but would that cover cancellation of hols in Aug/Oct if I claim on it whilst it is still in place?

Cannot see how I can disclose something that I dont have a diagnosis of. Have been in this position before with daughter when she had rumbling appendix. They wouldnt cover her as it was down as non specific pain! They said she wouldnt be covered for anything to do with abdomen area, even if it had nothing to do with what she was suffering with at the time as we didnt have a diagnosis (which the hospital wouldnt give).

I know there are insurers who do pre existing conditions but as I dont have one as yet what do I do?? I cant wait to see what it is first really cos if it is serious then I would be in position of having to get insurance with pre existing condition just to then cancel trips straight away, which I dont suppose I could do.

Any advice appreciated as already worried without losing thousands into the bargain.

Cheers

k-hkr

Any advice?

Redrum_2

Without knowing the specifics of your condition or your travel policy, all I could recommend is to read your policy booklet and see how they define a "pre-existing condition." Failing that, give your insurer a call and see what they say

You could take a "pre-existing" medical condition to be one of two things:

1) something you knew about when you took out the travel policy

2) something you knew about when you booked the holiday

From what you've said, it seems that neither of the above are the case - that you took out the policy, booked the holiday, and then found out that there might be something wrong

There's a second issue of whether your existing policy covers you, given it runs out in June/July and your first trip isn't until August. I don't know whether the cover relates to when your actual holiday is, or to when the "action" (ie potential cancellation) actually happens

That's all my opinion. I'd really recommend carefully reading through the policy document - take your time and what seems like legal mumbo-jumbo will gradually make sense!

Failing that, give them a call. See if you can outline the details of your situation without giving out your policy number, that way they can't add anything to your file!

Of course, the preferred solution is that you get a clean bill of health and it's all irrelevant

k-hkr

Cheers matey. It does seem like a catch 22 situation to me in many ways. In the one hand you would think an annual policy must cover you if you cancel within it or that would would mean you would always be lagging behind, if you get my drift. They say about having to notify them as soon as you are aware of a problem. Does that mean when diagnosed or when you first visit quacks? Lots of ambiguous stuff. As you say, as there is noyone with `inside` knowledge on here i`ll have to try and find out from the insurers without giving anything away. Thanks for the reply anyway.

Peakma

We are going to Jersey in June for 10 days.We stay with a relative so I don't usualy bother with travel insurance.Should I ?
Theres a couple of reasons I'm considering this.!. We were visiting the MIL at the weekend,and I was going to get breakdown cover the night before ,but after getting sick of looking for the best deal for us,I didn't bother getting any (so typical sods law!)Anyway we broke down,head gasket went and it cost us a fortune to join the AA at the roadside and get towed home.(and it's going to cost a lot more to fix it)So now I've thought about travel insurance,I'm thinking I should actually go ahead and buy!
The other reason is we were near the airport we'll be travelling from when we broke down,so if we had been on the way to the airport,we'd probably of missed our fights-would that situation be covered by travel insurance? and if so would they sort us out the next available flights,or reimberse the cost of the original flights?
Also chicken-pox is going around in our village(I just know sods law is going to come into my life again!)If we had chicken-pox and couldn't fly due to this,what would happen? Is this sort of stuff covered by travel insurance ? I really don't have a clue!
Any advice or reccomedations as to who to purchase it from? Or how much it should cost?Thanks in advance.

Savvy_Sue

I don't know for certain but I think travel insurance would cover chickenpox ... it would be worth double checking with whoever you decide to take the policy out with however, because I believe from some threads last year then the company expected the 'fit' members of the party to travel, leaving one parent with the 'sick' child. I'm sorry I don't know about the situation where if you broke down and missed your flights would you be covered. Again, it's a case of ask the company or read their T&C!

But I've always thought travel insurance worthwhile when going anywhere that isn't covered by the normal NHS - don't know how they do things on the Channel Isles but I'm a "What if he falls under a bus?" kind of person.

hasn't Martin done an article on travel insurance? I'm sure I've used it ...

But know what you mean about getting freaked out by searching for the cheapest!

megsykins

This could be a fruitless comment, but is Jersey outside of the UK? Martin's travel insurance article says:

"Trips are mostly defined as business or travel overseas (even a day trip), or more than two consecutive nights away in the UK at prepaid accommodation starting the moment you leave until the moment you return. "

So would staying with family within the UK count?

Either way, you can get to the article here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1083570446,24889,

malky39

I am looking for world wide travel insurance and a decent price. Only problem is i hav diabetes. And this causes some problems with insurance as when i last called around many would not cover for anyting do do with my condition but only for other reasons. Before someone suggests diabetes uk dont bother there quote last year was double what i ended up paying.
Any advice would be good.